John was thorough this time. He checked the blood samples, X-rays of the brain, bone structure, teeth, hell he even took a sample of bone marrow just to be extra sure. All came back positive. All belonged to him. All positive signs hurt all that much more.
They noticed the limp. That he didn't use a cane. That he clenched his hands open and closed. That he didn't sleep or eat as much as he used to. The yarders looked at him with pity. John Watson didn't deserve this. He was a good man. A loyal man. Now, a broken man too.
It had been bad enough with Mary, she'd tried so hard but there were complications and she was in that 2% that just weren't enough even with her own history. She took Alison with her. He hadn't moved from his chair in the flat for the best part of a week and it took Mrs Hudson's nagging and Sherlock Holmes' cases to get him out of his pending depression.
It was that nail in the coffin. The real coffin. With a proper body. With the actual body. That sent John into a broken crying stupor. It meant he collapsed by the grave and instead of asking for the life of the other to come back – because really that was painful enough the first time – he cried tears of a man who was loyal enough to die for his loved ones and yet had watched them all go and knew he didn't deserve this. Everyone knew.
They tried, and failed, to help John. Lestrade came over a lot but stopped with the drinking sessions because John would always drink too much.
Mycroft kidnapped him once after the incident. When John gave him a black eye he didn't do anything more. Mycroft had given them the case. John hadn't been fast enough. John hated them both equally but at least he could hurt Mycroft.
Billy the Skull sat in John's lap and he talked to him frequently whilst playing with the gold band he still refused to remove from his finger.
A year later he stood in front of the two black graves and laid flowers down in front of Mary's and Alison's conjoined one and knelt down between the two before looking at the other.
'Sherlock Holmes'
John Watson was a broken man. John Watson had no-one left.
#SherlockHolmesdies means #JohnWatsondies